有一位朋友申请了几所美国大学工业工程专业（Industrial Engineering以下简称IE）的硕士，拿到Texas A&M University, University of Southern California, Arizona State University, University of Wisconsin Madison的录取。
该朋友倾向于USC、TAMU和ASU三所学校。他们的IE排名都在前二十，学院里也有不少教授在做logistics 跟SCM。TAMU的专排最高排到第九，费用也最便宜；ASU的IE因为跟SCM商学院的关系也很有吸引力；USC的校友资源听起来很吸引人，工程学院很有名。费用方面，USC很贵，由于担心经济危机不好找工作，不确定去USC值不值。该朋友在这三校之间取舍不定。
我的朋友杨志斌的专业是工业工程，我请他作答。他先后在ASU和TAM读过工业工程，现在密西根大学读工业工程的博士，即将毕业。他的答复如下，是英语，抱歉我没时间翻译。
Dear Inquirer,
I am currently a senior PhD student in Industrial & Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan, and I also hold a MS degree from ASU IE. My PhD dissertation research happens to be in the area of supply chain management.
Location. Since your terminal degree is Master, you may consider going to a place that has more job opportunities (as you pointed out). A big city like Phoenix or Los Angeles would do you good. I am slightly negative with the location of TAMU, which is in a very small town without major industries and isolated from major cities (and jobs) of TX (Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas).
Ranking. For graduate degrees, area ranking makes more sense than university ranking (US News ranking of best college is for college students and their parents). All three schools have about the same level of ranking in IE, but USC seems to beat the other two by a thin margin. But, in my humble opinion, since you are not getting a PhD degree, location should weight more in your decision than ranking.
Cost-reputation tradeoff. Having a USC tag would give you a wider alumni network and higher starting point, in US and China. I count this as a long-run benefit (lifetime, maybe). Whether it is worth additional $$$, by how much, is totally up to your own judgment and budget.
I hope this helps. There are some additional comments worth mentioning.
First, in China people tend to equalize supply chain management to logistics (物流). In US, supply chain management has evolved from logistics into a much bigger concept that includes purchasing, manufacturing, market management and much more. Do your own research to make sure your are getting what you wish to get. You can do this by reading the departments' course lists.
Second, some, if not many, business schools offer MS degree in SCM (e.g., check out Michigan State). In general, I believe their programs are more focused on what they are doing than IEs.
Best luck,
Ben
我的感觉IE和SCM还是totally不一样的，更偏重于Ops
如果从学学术看,下面是ranking
Best Engineering Schools Specialty Rankings: Industrial / Manufacturing
Ranked in 2009
1 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 4.9
2 University of California--Berkeley Berkeley, CA 4.5
University of Michigan--Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI 4.5
4 Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 4.2
5 Northwestern University (McCormick) Evanston, IL 4.1
Pennsylvania State University--University Park University Park, PA 4.1
Stanford University Stanford, CA 4.1
8 Cornell University Ithaca, NY 4.0
Texas A&M University--College Station (Look) College Station, TX 4.0
10 University of Wisconsin--Madison Madison, WI 3.9
如果从location上看，就完全不同了，这个就更是仁者见仁智者见智了
Thanks, I am the inquirer.
Your information comes a bit late while I have made my decision to TAMU, mainly because of the budget.
Thanks all the same. Your reply is very helpful.